What Matters
by Dream Painter
Summary: COMPLETE :: The stability of Major Lorne's team is threatened once again. One mission left before some R&R time and Marcus still hasn't told him something, yet... Sequel to Something to Prove
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: **This is the sequel to "Something to Prove." If you haven't read it yet, you'll want to do that first.  
_

---

"I see surfing in your future."

Lieutenant Marcus Lorne looked up in surprise as his brother sat across from him.

"What?" he asked around a bite of what he sincerely hoped was scrambled eggs.

"This weekend," Major Evan Lorne responded matter-of-factly. "We're both off, so I figured we should take the opportunity to spend some time together—just the two of us. Dr. Weir already cleared a jumper that we can take to the mainland. We'll make a day of it. I'll even teach you how to fly the jumper." Marcus swallowed.

"Oh," he said, a little less enthusiastically than he'd intended to sound, but Evan didn't notice. "Sounds great."

"Oh, it is," Eve grinned. "Have you been to the mainland yet? It's nice. It's very nice. We just gotta make sure we both get through the upcoming mission in one piece." He clapped his hand on Mars' shoulder before continuing with his meal, chatting about the plans he had for the weekend. Marcus watched him for a moment. He was really excited about all this. It was so seldom that he saw Evan looking forward to anything—in fact, it had been years. Which is why when he opened his mouth to say something, he simply closed it again. He'd tell Evan later.

"Sir? Marcus?" Laura Cadman, one of the other members of SGA-2, spoke as she paused beside their table. "You do realize we're supposed to leave in less than 20 minutes, right?"

"Yeah," Mars answered.

"Really?" Evan asked, glancing at his watch. He looked at his brother. "How long have I been sitting here?"

"About half an hour." They all gazed at Evan's tray. He hadn't eaten very much, yet, and he was still dressed in his civvies.

"Alright," the team leader told the two of them, grabbing a couple items off his plate as he rose to his feet, "make sure Parrish is ready. I'll meet you all in the jumper bay.

"Yes, sir," Laura said. She seated herself in the newly vacated chair. "Hmm... Evan didn't even touch his cream of wheat," she noted, taking up a spoon and eating a bite. "Ulgh! What did he put in this?" Cadman spit the mouthful out into a napkin. Marcus quirked a smile.

"You probably don't wanna know."

---

"I can't wait for this mission to be over!" Major Evan Lorne declared as he entered the hangar bay.

"We haven't even left yet, sir," Lieutenant Cadman remarked, amused by her CO's barely contained excitement. The coming weekend was all the elder Lorne had been talking about for weeks. Now that she thought of it, however, Marcus hadn't really talked about it.

"Then, we'd best get started," Evan grinned. "Alright, kids, everyone pile into the jumper."

"Yes, mom," Mars smirked. The four teammates took their seats, Evan in the pilot's seat with Marcus beside him and Laura and David right behind them. The brown-haired lieutenant had been unusually quiet lately, Cadman thought. She silently regarded the younger Lorne. There was something off. Nothing huge or earth-shattering, yet distinct... She pondered the matter for a moment before she realized what it was—Marcus wasn't pushing to fly the jumper. He and Evan argued about nearly everything else, time and circumstance permitting, yet the few times they'd taken a jumper for a mission in the two months since he'd joined the team, Mars hadn't so much as asked to pilot the jumper.

"So, Marcus," Laura said, "I hear you're a pretty good pilot. I'd like to see you in action sometime."

"Don't encourage him, Cadman," Major Lorne told her before his brother could respond. "You want him to get some practice in, first. Believe me—I'm the one who taught him how to drive." He turned on the jumper and it automatically made its way to the gate room.

"I wasn't that bad!" Marcus protested. "Uncle Damien said I was good at it."

"Uncle Damien drives like a maniac," his brother snorted. They arrived in the gate room and Elizabeth gave them the all-clear. Several minutes after emerging from the wormhole, they landed on the planet's surface.

"Well, this isn't a very Parrish-friendly planet," Lieutenant Lorne commented, looking around at the sparsely vegetated and rocky terrain.

"Oh, my, look at this!" exclaimed the biologist seconds later. He began babbling something that his teammates scarcely followed as he examined a large brush-like plant.

"You were saying?" Laura laughed. Mars wrinkled his nose.

" 'Oh, look! Sagebrush!' " he said, mimicking David. The scientist rolled his eyes.

"I heard that, lieutenant," he declared.

"Well, it _is_ sagebrush," Mars returned.

"Major," David attempted to gain his CO's back-up.

"Looks like sagebrush to me, doc," Eve grinned.

"Typical," Parrish sighed, capping a sample and putting it in his bag. They moved on, bouncing banter back and forth. Despite the rocky start with their newest member, SGA-2 was becoming a cohesive unit quicker than it had previously. Evan and David had worked together the longest, having been stationed on Atlantis since the beginning of the expedition. Laura had come on the Daedalus when it came to the city's defense against the wraith two years prior, later taking the place of one of the two members of the team who had fallen that day. Since then, they hadn't really been able to keep a fourth person on the team. Perhaps Marcus would stay around a bit longer.

"Alright," the major directed, "look around a bit, but stay in radio range and... ask me before you touch anything suspicious." He glanced at David as he said the last part.

"Aw, c'mon, Major!" the biologist exclaimed. "Marcus gets us in more trouble than I ever do!"

"Right," Evan conceded. "Cadman, keep an eye on him." Marcus glared at him as Laura suppressed a grin. The two lieutenants headed off while Parrish proceeded to take plant and soil samples, Major Lorne poking around a short distance away. The scientist was well aware of the air force officer's close proximity. There was a time when his CO's protectiveness had bothered him, but he had long since gotten used to it.

"Hey, what's wrong with you?" Laura asked her teammate as they made their way between large rocks and gnarled, undernourished trees.

"Nothing. Why?" Mars responded. The woman regarded him silently for a moment. She had gotten pretty good at reading Evan's body language, but, alike as they were, Marcus had his own set of quirks which she had yet to get accustomed to.

"You've been quiet," Cadman told him. "Too quiet. C'mon, Lorne Junior, what's bothering you?" Marcus squinted at nothing in particular and blew a breath out through his teeth.

"It's nothing, really. I just haven't told Evan something, yet," he answered. "It never comes up and I guess I'm kinda putting it off, y'know?"

"Well, why are you putting it off?" his teammate demanded.

"I don't really have a reason," Lieutenant Lorne shrugged. "I just..." He halted suddenly, bringing up his closed fist and indicating that he thought he had heard something. The teenage boy Marcus so often seemed to channel had vanished instantaneously, replaced by a man wizened by the peril that inhabited the universe.

Laura activated her radio. "Sir," she said quietly, "we may have some company." Two clicks indicated that Evan had received the message. Marcus took a silent step backwards and started to turn before a volley of stunner blasts erupted from somewhere ahead of them.

"Wraith!" the man shouted, jumping away in time to avoid getting hit. The two lieutenants fell back where Evan and David still waited.

"Get back to the jumper," Major Lorne commanded. "Mars, start it up and be ready to get the hell out of dodge. I'll cover our six. Now, _move_!" Cadman and Parrish immediately obeyed while Evan fired at the approaching wraith.

"Eve, I think it'd be better if I covered our six and you went for the jumper," Mars told him. "I mean, I've never even flown a jumper..."

"You'll do fine, Mars," his brother interrupted.

"No, I really think—"

"Dammit, Marcus! Now is not the time to argue. Go start the damn jumper!"

"I can't!" Evan shot him a look. "I don't have the gene."

---

_To be continued..._


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: Sorry it took so long to get this up--hectic week. Hope you enjoy. Also, Scottish translation is absent for now because Fraggledragon is at a convention. I will update it later. _

---

Marcus diverted his gaze as his older brother studied him for a fleeting moment. The younger Lorne's eyebrows were drawn together and a muscle at the corner of his jaw quivered ever so slightly, his brown eyes stormy with a mix of misery, remorse, and shame. He wasn't lying.

"Cover our six—and DON'T get caught!" Evan ordered. "I expect you to be right behind me. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," the lieutenant responded. Major Lorne dashed away while his brother laid cover fire.

"Sir? Where's Marcus?" Laura asked when Evan arrived at the jumper. She didn't even attempt to hide her concern and neither did Parrish.

"He's right behind me," the man answered, passing her and heading straight to the pilot's seat. The jumper came to life effortlessly, it seemed. Evan had gotten much better at working Ancient technology since his arrival in Atlantis. He was nearly as proficient as Colonel Sheppard.

"Let's get outta here," Marcus panted, firing shots behind him as he arrived several minutes later, barely avoiding a stunner blast. Evan closed the rear hatch and the ship took to the air.

"You alright?" Cadman asked Marcus, who just nodded as he pushed past her and headed for his seat. She'd been alarmed when Evan had returned to the jumper without him.

"Are we cloaked?" Parrish demanded.

"Yes, doc, we're cloaked. Now, take some deep breaths and stop panicking," the major snapped. David and Laura exchanged a glance as Marcus plopped down into his seat. "I want you to be ready to transmit your IDC." The younger Lorne gave a short nod. He seemed tense, though, that might have been due to the fact that the wraith were hot on their tail. Random blasts from two or three darts flew past from behind, one of them striking the side of the jumper.

"As this rate, we're gonna become infamous for getting into scrapes," the scientist declared, his pitch raised a couple of notes, "Like SG-1 or-or Colonel Sheppard's team!" He momentarily wondered if he'd even be in a jumping fleeing from the wraith if he had one less PhD.

"Don't be so melodramatic, David," Cadman said. "We'll never be that infamous." Another blast hit the jumper as they approached the gate, followed quickly by another. Evan fired back as Marcus dialed Atlantis.

"Hold on, people," he told his team. "I don't think we're cloaked anymore."

"Really?" Parrish spoke up as the jumper took another hit. "I wouldn't have guessed!"

"Enter your code," Major Lorne commanded. "We don't have time to stop."

"Yes, sir," Marcus responded even as he complied. '_Yes, sir'_? Something was definitely up.

"Atlantis, we're coming in hot," the elder Lorne spoke into his radio.

"Copy that, Jumper 2," Chuck responded from the control room.

"Um, not that I doubt you, Major, but you have done this before, right?" the scientist asked, gripping his seat. "Stopped really fast, I mean? And by fast, I mean, really, _really_ fast."

"Do you really want the answer to that now?" Evan questioned as they hurtled towards the gate.

Parrish paled several shades. "No," he squeaked. A mere moment later, they reached the active gate and Evan willed the jumper to stop...

---

As they emerged on the other end of the wormhole, the puddle jumper all but screeched to a halt, jolting forward everything that wasn't tied down. The two Lorne brothers were thrust against the dash while Dr. Parrish was slammed into the back of the pilot's seat and Cadman was thrown to the floor.

Evan drew in a shaky breath. "Everyone alright?" he asked. The jumper made its way to the hangar.

"Yeah," Marcus answered. "Thanks for not crashing."

"I got the wind knocked out of me," David wheezed, "but I think I'm alright."

"Cadman?"

"Do bruises count?" the woman returned, rising to her feet. "I'll live, sir. How about you?" She noticed the way Evan was cradling his left wrist.

"I'm good," her CO answered. "I just jammed my wrist against the controls." The rear hatch opened, then, and Carson and some paramedics entered the jumper.

"I understand you had a bit of a rough stop," the doctor said. "Is everyone okay?"

"Major Lorne hurt his wrist, but the rest of us seem to be fine," Laura told him.

"I want to have a look at you all, anyhow, just to be certain," Beckett informed them.

"Okay, doc," the major spoke quietly. "Marcus and I will be along shortly."

"Alright, major, but don't do anything with that arm before I can be sure nothing's broken." The medical personnel went away with the other members of the team, leaving the two brothers by themselves.

"I have the gene naturally," Evan stated.

"Well, I didn't get it," his brother responded.

"Did you..?"

"Yeah. Twice. It didn't take." They sat there in silence for a moment that seemed to stretch into an eternity, Evan looking down at his injured wrist and Marcus staring out the front window into the jumper bay.

"I thought I made it clear that you didn't have to prove yourself to me," the older Lorne finally spoke.

"I know," Marcus replied. Neither redirected his gaze.

"Then, why didn't you just tell me?"

"I don't know. It just never came up."

"Dammit, Mars!" Evan abruptly turned to face his brother. "You had plenty of opportunity to tell me! Now, cut the crap and tell me why you didn't."

"I just put it off!" the younger Lorne exclaimed. "I put it off and then you were so excited about this weekend—Eve, I haven't seen you like that since before you joined the Air Force and I... I didn't want to disappoint you. I couldn't."

"Disappoint me?" the major echoed. "You thought that I'd be disappointed just because you don't have some stupid gene? Mars—that's not what matters. What matters is that you've become a valuable member of my team. What matters is that you're my brother and I want to spend time with you. You should have been straight with me." Marcus finally met his brother's gaze.

"We're not doing so well, are we?" he asked.

"Don't talk like that," Evan said.

"It's the truth. We're not as close as we once were. We used to talk and get along, but now..." the lieutenant trailed off.

"We'll get through this. We just need more time," his brother insisted. Mars let out a bitter laugh.

"Time. Isn't that what caused our problems in the first place?"

Evan looked away, memories flickering through his mind. "Yeah," he murmured softly. "I guess it is." Silence reigned for a moment more before the lieutenant rose to his feet.

"C'mon, Eve," he said quietly, "Doc wants to have a look at us." The major stood up and they left the jumper, neither having anything else to say.

---

"It's not looking very well," Dr. David Parrish was saying, crouching down to peer at the object in question.

"I don't know what happened," Katie Brown responded, brushing one of the little plant's leaves with a gentle finger. "It was starting to look so healthy, but then it got sick again."

David stood up, wincing at the discomfort in his ribs as he did so.

"Are you alright?" Katie asked, noticing his expression.

"Yeah," the man answered with a grimace. "Just some bruised ribs. I'll be fine."

"I don't know why you do it. You are always getting hurt, but you still go out on missions. Rodney's the same way." She shook her head.

David smiled. "Well, at first I thought maybe I was crazy, but I've really grown to like going off-world. All the good times, the things we discover—it's worth the moments of life-threatening peril." His colleague tilted her head as she studied him for a moment.

"David Parrish turns intrepid explorer," she uttered thoughtfully. "Never saw that coming." David grinned. He'd never seen it coming, either. They fell into a companionable silence as they went about watering the various plants in the room. Over the past few years, they'd worked together often and had become good friends. The peace in the lab was soon interrupted, however, when Dr. McKay entered several minutes later.

"David," he said, surprised to find somebody else in the lab with Katie.

"Rodney," Parrish returned. "Hello."

"Hi," Rodney echoed. "You're here to, uh..?"

"To see how the plants are doing," David supplied.

"Right. Yes, of course, because in addition to biology you also have a PhD in, um..."

"Botany."

"Yes. It makes sense actually. I, uh, I just didn't expect to find you here."

"Anymore than I expected this moment of extreme awkwardness." The two men looked at each other for several seconds until Katie cleared her throat.

"Rodney?" she said. Rodney suddenly remembered his reason for coming to the lab as David recalled the vast importance of his task.

"Katie, how are you?" McKay asked her.

"I'm fine," Dr. Brown answered cheerily. "What brings you here? Dinner isn't for several hours."

"That's, uh, that's what I came to talk to you about, actually," he told her.

"You won't be able to make it?" She looked disappointed.

"No!" Rodney countered. "No, I'll definitely be there, it's just... I might be a little late." Theirs was an odd relationship, David thought, the rest of the conversation falling on deaf ears as he moved about the room. Seriously, they were practically polar opposites. But, maybe that worked for them. He shrugged. Whatever.

"Hey, Parrish." David looked up from his musing to find that Rodney had left and Major Lorne had entered. He was still partially in uniform, his top replaced by a gray t-shirt that gave his blue eyes an ashy appearance, and his left wrist secured in a tan-colored brace.

"Major," the scientist returned. "How's the wrist?"

"Doc say it's a bad sprain. It'll be fine," Evan replied. "Have you seen Marcus?"

"I think he's getting his butt kicked at darts in the rec room."

The air force officer shook his head. "Already been there. Cadman said she hadn't seen him."

"Hmm. I don't know where he is, then. Sorry, major."

"Don't worry about it. If you see him, will you tell him that I'm looking for him?" Major Lorne asked.

"Yeah, sure," Parrish replied, giving his CO a smile. The man was wearing that poorly masked look of concern he often got when things weren't going so well with his brother. He turned and left the room.

"What if we tried moving it away from the other plants?" Katie suggested, standing over the plant they'd been examining earlier.

"That's something we haven't tried yet," David answered thoughtfully. "It just might work..."

---

_To be continued..._

-

A/N: I neither support nor dislike the Rodney/Katie ship. However, in an effort to make my story as canon as possible, despite the fact it is, in fact, AU (Carson's still alive, Weir's still in charge), I paid the ship what I felt was its due homage._  
_


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: I am very sorry it took me so incredibly long to get this up. There was just a couple section in this chapter that just wouldn't be written! Between that and numerous other distractions, I finally did get this typed up and I suppose I'm happy enough with it. Hopefully, chapter 4 will come faster. As always, feel free to let me know what you think!  
_

_---_

_:FLASHBACK:_

"Hey," Evan called as he entered the small barn at the back of his parents' property. He pulled his coat tighter about him. "It's freezing in here! Anybody home?"

"Eve!" a seventeen-year-old Marcus exclaimed, wiping his hands on his pants as he emerged from one of the stalls. "I thought you weren't going to make it home for Christmas this year!" 

"Change of plans," his brother told him. "I have to go back Friday, though." They embraced.

"Friday?" the teen complained. "But that's the day after Christmas!"

"I know," Evan studied him for a moment. Marcus was looking good. After more than a year of physical therapy, he no longer walked with a limp. His hair fell down into his brown eyes and he didn't look quite as short as he'd been the last time Evan saw him. "You look taller."

"I am taller!" Marcus laughed.

"Really? How tall?"

"Five-foot-six."

"Five-foot-six? You're short!"

"Oh, ha ha," Mars faked a scowl. "You're not that much taller."

Evan grinned. "But I am taller. You're looking good."

"You don't look so bad yourself."

"So, Trish says you've got a project you've been working on."

"You mean the grease and oil I'm covered in wasn't a big give-away?" Marcus smirked.

"Nah, I just thought you'd taken a liking to the cold," Eve teased. "Let me have a look. Maybe I can lend you a hand."

"Alright," his younger sibling agreed, leading him back to his work area. "Ta-da! It's looking great, isn't it? I figured since you never found the time to get it working that I'd try my hand at it. Whaddaya think?"

A motorbike. 

Evan didn't see the wide grin on his brother's face, nor did he note the care with which the bike had been reassembled, how its chrome parts shone in the dim light. Instead, he saw Bruce Riley's empty lot. He saw Marcus going off that monstrous jump. Marcus crashing, slamming along the ground like a rag doll. No longer could he feel the frigid bite of the winter air, but rather the warmth of Marcus' blood soaking through his clothing, through that uniform that still lay at the bottom of his drawer.

Evan couldn't see the excitement on Marcus' face, the look of accomplishment there. Instead, he saw his little brother dying in his arms... and he lost it.

"What the hell are you thinking?" he demanded, turning abruptly to face his brother.

"Excuse me?" Marcus returned, confusion clouding his features. "Eve, what are you..?"

"What?" Evan cut him off. "You thought maybe after you fixed it up, you'd ride it?"

"Well, yeah..."

"You goddamn moron! Almost killing yourself once wasn't enough for you? Figured you'd go and try it again?"

"Evan, it's not like that!" Marcus protested. "I'm gonna be more careful--"

"Careful?" the airman exploded. "_Careful!_ Mars, you haven't been 'careful' a day in your life, and the moment..."

"Eve, that's not fair! You've done..."

"The _MOMENT_ I'm not around to babysit you, you go and get your brains knocked out!"

"You've done stupid stuff, too!"

"The bike is mine and I won't let you have it!" Evan shouted. "I can't be here to protect you all the time!"

"I DON'T WANT YOU TO!" Marcus screamed. Evan stared at him in surprise. "I'm not an idiot, Evan. I can learn from my mistakes and I don't need you breathing down my neck!" He pushed past him and stormed to the house.

"That's right, dummy!" Evan hollered after him. "Go and pout about it—you're a real big man, now!" Moments later, a door slammed. The holiday was ruined.

---

Lieutenant Marcus Lorne wandered down a corridor, lost in thought. He rubbed at the base of his skull and squinted into the distance.

"Where do you think you're going?" Marcus glanced over as his older brother came up behind him.

"Nowhere," he murmured. "Just... walking." Wordlessly, Evan fell in step beside him.

"What's on your mind?" the elder Lorne asked. Marcus didn't answer right away and for a moment Evan thought that he wouldn't.

"Remember that fight we had?" he finally responded. Evan frowned. They had been in a good number of quarrels over the years, but he didn't point this out. He knew which incident his brother was referring to.

"Vaguely," he replied.

"I remember everything," Marcus continued. "It couldn't have been more than twenty degrees outside, but I was in the barn, anyway. You came out in a pair of khakis and that battered old jacket you always wore. I was so surprised to see you..." he smiled at the memory. "Shoulda gone inside right then."

"But I asked to see what you'd been working on," Evan pointed out.

"And I couldn't wait to show you."

"Mars..."

"Y'know, I keep thinking about that day, wondering what went wrong... what I did wrong. But I didn't do anything. I was just living my life and somehow ended up losing my best friend in the process. Before that, whenever you called me a dummy or some other name, I knew you didn't mean it. That day, I thought you did."

"So did I," Evan admitted softly. Marcus halted to stare at him in surprise. "You gotta understand something, though," his brother continued. "Marcus, when I saw that bike, all I could think about was... was that day you almost died in my arms, how there'd been nothing I could do to save you. I know I overreacted, but the thought of that ever happening again—it scared the hell outta me."

"You still have nightmares about that, don't you?" Marcus asked knowingly. It was Evan's turn to be surprised. He didn't realize that Marcus was privy to that which so often haunted his dreams.

"Yeah. I do," he responded. "Mars, I will always try to protect you. That doesn't mean I don't think you can handle yourself. Your a good officer, but you're still my little brother."

"And I will always feel the need to prove myself to you. No matter how old I get, Eve, I still wanna be just like you. You're still my hero." The two siblings looked at each other. After a moment, Evan reached out and ruffled his brother's hair. 

"Just what I always wanted to be, brat," he smiled.

---

"I must have been called major at least a dozen times," Marcus was saying. "I finally figured out that you'd been there before I came along."

Evan chuckled. "Leave it to General O'Neill to not mention something like that."

"Yeah, no kidding."

"Do you wander off like this a lot?" the elder Lorne asked, noting how far they'd gotten from the inhabited part of the city.

"It's not I get lost or anything. I know where I am," his brother protested.

"Yeah, but nobody else does. No wonder I can't find you half the time. We're probably out of range of the working sensors."

"I come out here when I don't want to be found. Don't worry, I bring my radio."

"Either way, we should probably turn around," Evan said, his expression stern.

"Fine," Marcus sighed as they headed back. "Wait—look at that..."

"Mars!" Evan trailed his brother up a side corridor, where the younger man had entered a large room that appeared to be a lab, judging by the numerous control panels. In the center was a smaller chamber, its walls made of glass panels or some other transparent material. Its raised floor was also divided into segments.

"Marcus," the elder Lorne admonished. "Don't touch anything."

"I'm not," Marcus responded, stepping into the clear chamber.

"Mars!" Evan followed him inside and took him by the arm. "Will you cut--" He trailed off as the lines between the panels lit up and an ominous hum permeated the room.

"That's not good," Marcus murmured.

"We're outta here," Evan declared, giving his sibling a push towards the door. Wordlessly, Marcus stepped back into the main room. No sooner had he exited the strange chamber, than a shrill tone rang out. The door vanished and the glass walls turned opaque.

"Eve!" the younger Lorne cried out, throwing himself at the place the doorway stood mere seconds before. It was futile. It had been sealed shut.

Inside, the light had become blindingly bright and Evan squinted in an attempt to lessen its harshness. He pounded a fist against the barrier which now blocked the doorway.

"Marcus!" he shouted. As the light dimmed, he turned to look at his surroundings. The ground had been replaced with long flower-studded grass that waved gently in the warm breeze. Sunshine poured down from a clear sky as birds and insects sang their melodies. Evan took several strides forward.

"What the _HELL_!"

---

_TBC..._


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: Again, it has been awhile since my previous update, though, probably not as long. Sorry for the delay--__honest! Also, this is shorter than my other chapters, but the next one should be the last, or at least the second last. Thank you for your patience, and please enjoy!_

--

Chapter 4

"Colonel Sheppard, this is Lieutenant Lorne, come in," Marcus repeated into his radio for the third or fourth time. "Dr. Weir, do you read me? Cadman? ... Chuck?_ Anyone_?!" He rubbed at the back of his neck, squinting at the strange chamber which had trapped his brother. Equipment was still humming and chirping and the walls of the room were still opaque.

"Of all the times for the batteries to die!" he muttered. He slowly circled the lab, looking at the various machines in turn. There were many flashing lights amidst buttons and switches, but nothing that the lieutenant thought he could decipher. A box against the back wall of the chamber appeared to be some sort of power source, but its casing didn't lend itself to easy removal and being electrocuted was not on his list of things to try. Marcus came to a stop where the chamber's door had stood.

"Eve, if you can hear me, I'm going for help," he said. "Just don't... Please don't get hurt because of me."

--

_Meanwhile..._

Evan took a mental inventory of everything on him. He still wore his BDU pants and gray t-shirt and his left arm was still secured in that wrist brace. He'd tried his radio several times, but received no response. Wherever he was, he appeared to be entirely alone. Slowly, he continued forward, intent on finding something to help him out of this predicament. After a few more steps, he felt some sort of resistance in the air right before he ran into something head-on.

"What the..?" Evan extended his arms out in front of him. Although he couldn't see anything, there was definitely something there. "A barrier?" His finger found a groove in the invisible surface and the realization struck him as he followed the wall to a corner.

"I'm still in the lab."

--

Laura Cadman exited Dr. Weir's office as David Parrish entered the control room.

"Hey, Parrish, have you seen Major Lorne and Marcus?" she asked. "I haven't seen Junior since we got back."

"The major came to the botany lab, earlier," David offered. "I haven't seen either of them since." Chuck looked up from where he was typing on a computer.

"Major Lorne had me do a sweep with the sensors," he told them. "We found a life sign he thought was the lieutenant and he went after him. That was maybe, um... three hours ago? Have you tried them on the radio?"

"Several times. I got nothing," Laura replied. The technician activated the radio.

"Major Lorne, this is Chuck, do you copy?" he said, using the equipment to boost the signal to maximum. "Lieutenant Lorne, can you hear me?" The Lornes' teammates leaned in closer to hear the response. There was none.

"Colonel Sheppard," Elizabeth hailed, having caught the conversation when she left her office. "Have you heard from either of the Lornes?"

"Not a peep," John's disembodied voice returned. "Why? Are they missing?"

"Sir, no one has heard from them for a few hours," Cadman told him. "They've got to be in some kind of trouble."

"Maybe they're just taking a long walk," Parrish suggested, his tone not very convincing. "I mean, they do still have a few issues to work through."

"If it were just Marcus, I 'd agree that he might possibly have wandered off without paying attention, but the major's just not reckless like that," Laura protested. "He'd never walk out of radio range."

"She's got a point," Colonel Sheppard agreed, walking up the steps to join the discussion in person. "Lorne's usually pretty good about that." (1)

"The city _is _full of a bunch of unfamiliar Ancient equipment," Chuck pointed out. Weir gave him a look that said he wasn't helping matters.

"If the major's been gone all this time, it means that life sign must've been Marcus, right?" David said.

"And if he caught up to Marcus," his teammate added, "they probably would have kept walking in the same general direction."

"Where was the life sign Major Lorne went after?" Weir asked. The technician brought up some city schematics punctuated by life signs detected by the working sensors.

"Here," he answered, pointing to the screen. "He was on this level here, heading that direction. They couldn't have traveled more than thirty minutes before going beyond the functioning sensors."

"So, that probably was Marcus," Laura sighed. "Are we gonna go find them?"

"Yeah, let's get a search team together," John answered.

"Yes, sir," the blonde nodded sharply before she and David left to prepare for the search. The colonel stood still for a moment, looking a bit perplexed for a second or two.

"What's the matter?" Elizabeth asked him.

"Well, usually when we need a search party, Lorne and his team are the first people I ask to help out," he answered wryly. "Now, he and his brother are the ones we're looking for!" He left, radioing his team and some others to join the search as he did so.

"How's that for irony?" Chuck uttered aloud. Elizabeth sighed.

--

As Marcus turned to leave, the walls of the chamber became transparent once more. "Eve!" he shouted, running back to the chamber. Inside, Evan didn't seem to have even heard him. The older Lorne was looking about the small room, as though he was trying to rationalize what exactly he was surrounded by. _What was this thing, anyway?_

One of the many control panels started giving a low rhythmic beep, accompanied by a flashing green light. The lieutenant timed them for several seconds. "It's his heart rate," he murmured. "This machine is keeping track of his vitals, but... why?" Another of the various panels drew his attention as it gave a shrill buzz and then proceeded to display a series of random lines in a wave pattern.

"... the hell is going on?" Evan's voice suddenly came from a speaker near the top of the chamber.

"Evan! You alright?!" Marcus demanded. With no response, he concluded that the sound must only go one way. "I don't like this, at all," he murmured, turning once more to go for help.

"Arggh!" his brother suddenly cried out. Marcus rushed back to the lab's doorway. Evan was getting up off the floor of the chamber, facing something that only he could see. He struck out at something before doubling over as though he'd been hit in the gut. A second later, he was thrown to the floor again. The younger Lorne approached slowly, scarcely believing what his eyes demanded was true.

"What is it doing to him?!"

--

_(1) When he talks about/to the Lornes, Colonel Sheppard refers to Evan as "Lorne" or "Major" and his brother as "Marcus" or "Lieutenant"_


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N: Finally! The last chapter! Again, I am impelled to apologize for the long delay... it's just that there are about a million things all competing for my attention right now. Have no fear, though—there shall be more Lorne Bros fics in the future (though, perhaps I shall finish them before I start posting, huh?). _

_Anyhow, without further ado..._

-

Chapter 5

"I'm still in the damn lab?" Major Evan Lorne uttered incredulously to himself, surveying his deceptively endless surroundings. What was the purpose of such an artificial environment? And why was he trapped inside? The landscape certainly wasn't lending any answer. Evan followed the perimeter of the unseen walls, fixing in his mind the location of his boundaries. He wondered if Marcus had called for help or if he was doing something foolish, like trying to shut down the device himself.

"Don't you dare, Mars," he murmured to himself. "You'd probably get us both killed." The older Lorne couldn't help but smile. Marcus had always been rather reckless—it's part of what made him Marcus. His brother had always been the friendlier of the two of them, the first to join in the fun, the first to laugh. Sometimes Evan wondered if he hadn't been taking himself too seriously all these years. Marcus had always had an almost childlike quality about him that Evan always felt he lacked. In a way, Marcus was freer to be himself.

An all too familiar whine disrupted the man's thoughts and he turned to look over his shoulder to see a lone wraith dart heading towards him. "What the hell is going on?" he exclaimed. A beam deposited a wraith not more than ten feet in front of him. Artificial environment or not, that thing appeared real as life and was heading straight for him.

"Why do I get the feeling this is gonna hurt?" As the wraith approached, Evan met him part-way within the chamber. He managed to get in the first swing and was a bit surprised that the blow was accompanied by very realistic pain. The air force officer didn't have much time to think about this as the wraith immediately delivered its counterattack—a blow to the ribs that knocked him to the ground.

Evan couldn't help but cry out, a mixture of pain and surprise as he landed on his injured wrist. He rose back to his feet, taking another swing at the creature before him. This time, he couldn't get in a strike. The wraith landed a punch to his gut, then grabbed him by the hair and threw him back to the ground when he doubled over.

"Come on, Evan," the man thought to himself. "You've taken on bigger guys..."

--

"Okay, I gotta think," Marcus murmured to himself as he watched his brother struggle against an unseen foe. "It's like he's in some kind of artificial environment... why does this seem familiar?" He thought about it for a moment before he remembered an incident early on in his first year at the SGC. It was when Dr. Lee and his team had been working on the chairs from P7J-9-something to develop the training simulation that was currently in use on the base. Before they were able to get the program usable, however, SG-1's Teal'c was nearly killed from the stress of having "died" within the simulation numerous times. (1)

Inside the chamber, it appeared that Evan was entirely on the defensive and it seemed the beeping that indicated his heart rate had practically doubled. "These are the Ancients, though," Marcus told himself. "I don't think they'd make a training simulation that could kill someone, would they?" He'd hardly finished the thought when Evan was slammed against the wall of the chamber in front of him, gasping as though he was being choked.

"Mar... Marcus," his voice came from the speaker. "Hur-ry up.. dammit..."

"Evan..."

--

"Major! Marcus!" Lt. Cadman shouted as she moved up the corridor along with Dr. McKay. "Is there anything on the Life Signs Detector?"

"You mean besides the search party?" he returned. "No." He elected not to say anything else, however, which was probably pretty wise on his part. From another corridor, Teyla and Ronon's voices could be heard. The search party continued forward.

--

Evan was losing. The man was aware of this. He also aware of the fact that he was most definitely stuck in some sort of simulation—had to be. He'd landed several hits that would have slowed down any wraith at least momentarily, but this thing... it hardly even blinked. His body had made contact with the walls and floor of the chamber countless times. Why else would it ache in such a way? Or maybe this wasn't some failed Ancient experiment... maybe he really was getting the crap beat out of him by a wraith. But if it really was a wraith, why didn't it just feed on him already?

A dull throb from Evan's left wrist managed to catch his attention as he attempted to rise once more from the ground. It was the only real injury he had, wasn't it? A cough escaped from his throat and he drew the back of his hand across his mouth. Blood. For some reason, he was coughing up blood. Was it possible that this device he was trapped in would kill him before Marcus returned with help? He rose unsteadily to his feet. Marcus. If he died, what would happen to his brother? Would he be able to cope without him?

The air force major fell backwards, though he couldn't determine whether it was because he had lost his balance or if the wraith had pushed him. Pain shot through the back of his skull as white flashed across his vision. After that, everything went black...

--

The first thing the man was aware of was the low hum of some sort of equipment and a rhythmic beeping. This was familiar. He'd been here before. He was sure of it. Slowly he started to open his eyes, but closed them again to ward off the brightness of his surroundings. Instead, he listened a while longer and was able to decipher some nearby voices.

"Carson, take it easy on him, will ya?" Cadman. That was Cadman's voice.

"Take it easy on him?" an irritated brogue responded. "The man just 'bout bloody well got himself electrocuted! I cannae take my eyes off him for a minute—what were ye thinkin' fiddling with the power supply like that?" That had to be Dr. Beckett, which meant he was probably in the infirmary.

"I saved Evan's life, didn't I?" Marcus. What a minute—why had he been messing with a power supply?

"Aye, that you did, lad," Carson conceded, his voice becoming softer. "His body couldn't have taken that sort of punishment much longer. Though, you could've just as easily gotten you both killed."

"I had to do something," Marcus said.

"And just where d'ye think you're going, now?" the doctor demanded.

"I wanna see Eve."

"I donnae want you up and about yet. You and that brother of yours have got yourselves a set of matching concussions." Well, that would explain the dull, throbbing headache. Evan finally opened his eyes and immediately wished he had just kept them closed.

"Hey, doc," he called out, his voice sounding a lot weaker than he would have liked. The curtain parted and the Scot stood over him.

"You're awake, then, Major? Welcome back to the land of the living," Carson told him. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I got the crap beat outta me by a malfunctioning training simulation," Evan murmured, offering a wry smile.

"That would seem to be what happened to you, alright. It appears to be a bit of bad luck on your part."

"You don't say."

"Aye," the doctor said, continuing to speak as he took the man's vitals. "Rodney seems to believe that the device activated when it sensed your ATA gene. If you'd stayed outta the bloody thing, we could've avoided this whole mess ta begin with."

"How's Marcus?" Evan wanted to know.

"Marcus!" Laura exclaimed. "Carson is going to..." The man in question appeared behind the doctor, Laura at his side.

"Eve! I thought I heard your voice."

"And what do you think you're doing?" Carson demanded.

"I tried to stop 'im," Laura offered.

"Sit," Dr. Beckett pointed to a chair. "And donnae be doing anymore wandering about or I'll have ye physically restrained. You should be resting."

"Alright," Marcus grinned. "I'm sitting! I'm sitting! I won't wander around anywhere."

"Be sure you don't." The man looked stern, but he couldn't keep his mild amusement from his eyes. He and Laura left the two siblings to themselves.

"What's this about messing with a power source?" Evan asked, closing his eyes to block out the infirmary lights.

"Been using your condition to eavesdrop, huh?" Marcus teased.

"You're the one who made Doc yell at you," his brother countered. "Now, out with it—why do you have a concussion and a bandaged hand?" The younger Lorne looked down at the gauze wrapping his right hand.

"You don't miss anything, do you?"

"Marcus..."

"I figured if I disrupted the power supply, the thing would stop working."

"So, you just randomly started pulling wires?!"

"Crystals, actually."

"Dummy..."

"Evan, that thing was killing you!" Marcus exclaimed.

"Yeah..." Evan spoke softly. "So, you got an electrical burn? How'd you manage the concussion?"

"Well, the shock kinda threw me across the room," his brother admitted. "I hit my head and lost consciousness for a bit, but the thing had stopped working, so it was worth it. That's when the cavalry came in."

"How'd you know it would work?" the major wanted to know.

"I didn't... but I couldn't just watch you die."

"Moron," Evan murmured, chuckling softly. "Y'know, Col. Stevens said your ideas were boneheaded... but they always work."

"And that's what matters?" Marcus asked, a knowing smile spreading across his face. Evan opened his eyes and met his brother's gaze.

"That's what matters."

--

End.

-

(1) Referring to the SG-1 episode _Avatar_ (8x06) in which Dr. Bill Lee and his team were working with the virtual reality chairs from _The Gamekeeper_ (SG-1 2x04)

_-_

_A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this—please leave me a review!_


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